Items Tagged with 'Countrywide Home Loans'

ARTICLES

Needless to say, the federal government probably isn’t too happy with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit right now. That's because for the second time in three months, the Second Circuit rebuked an effort by the government to extract one of the largest fines to come out of the housing crisis.

Last month, mortgage bond investors moved one step closer to ending their five-year wait for their money from an $8.5 billion settlement involving Bank of America, mortgages originated by its Countrywide unit, and the Bank of New York Mellon. At the time, a report suggested that the aggrieved bondholders would receive their money in June, and according to a new report from Fitch Ratings, that’s exactly what happened.

One of most notorious people at the center of the housing crisis is reportedly off the hook for any supposed malfeasance, as Bloomberg is reporting that the Department of Justice is abandoning its attempt to sue Angelo Mozilo, the founder of Countrywide, for his company’s lending practices in the run-up to the housing crisis.

The ghosts of Countrywide past just struck again, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced Thursday that eight major financial institutions will pay $190 million total to settle a series of lawsuits tied to toxic Countrywide mortgage bonds that subsequently led to the failure of five banks during the housing crisis.

Another one of the vestiges of Countrywide's past is about to disappear, as Bank of America is set to close and sell a facility in Ft. Worth, Texas that once housed as many as 3,000 Countrywide employees. But the move will not lead to any job cuts, according a report from the Dallas Morning News.

Lost in the shuffle of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision to toss the $1.27 billion penalty against Bank of America was the fact that the court also overturned the fraud charges and voided the $1 million penalty against Rebecca Mairone. Mairone is the same person who the New York Times once referred to as the "face of the housing crisis."

HSBC Bank notified a New York state court this week that it plans to file a $420 million lawsuit against Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, claiming that both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America knew a series of Countrywide mortgage loans were toxic and allowed the loans to be securitized nonetheless. Here are all the details.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed Bank of America a massive victory, and dealt the Department of Justice a major blow, on Monday when it overturned a $1.27 billion penalty against the megabank in a fraud case over defective mortgages sold by Countrywide. The case stems from the government suing Bank of America over Countrywide's "Hustle" loan origination process.

Ending a legal quagmire that stretched back to 2011, investors are finally set to receive their money from an $8.5 billion settlement involving Bank of America, mortgages originated by its Countrywide unit, and the Bank of New York Mellon, which acted as the trustee for the mortgage bond investors.

Commentary

With the recent turnover in leadership at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, we may be standing at the precipice of great change in the government’s role in supporting the mortgage market through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.